


aftermath

by Xaidread



Category: Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 12:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15751353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xaidread/pseuds/Xaidread
Summary: Winding down after the siege of the round-house.





	aftermath

Alan steps back inside and catches his breath just past the threshold, still gripping the blooded sword in his right hand. Right quick does he follow the direction of David's gaze to the fallen sailors heaped over the floor before the lad turns his head up at the abrupt footfalls. Alan comes up to David with open arms, saying, "Come to my arms, Davie." He crosses the distance between them in four steps. "I love you like a brother!" His free hand claps heavily over the side of David's neck, holding him in place as he crushes lips to both cheeks, first the left and then the right. The boy flinches under the scrape of beard against his unwhiskered skin.

Pulling David closer, he growls into the battle-dazed face, "Am I no a bonny fighter?" He shakes his shaggy head, trying to cast from his eyes the strands of hair that have flown loose in the fighting and became plastered with sweat to his temples. David smells meat and wine on every exhalation that restores Alan nearer to composure. His own spirit strains to escape him: the blood still pounds in his ears, his pulse flutters under the highlander's fingers.

Alan's heavy breathing turns over to the beginnings of a lively air, and then he breaks away from the embrace. The humming comes into full force as he begins the dirty work to dispose of the enemy. He kicks at a body to get the belly exposed and drives steel into soft flesh.

David backs away until his shanks find the edge of a bench shoved to the wall. He collapses onto it and shuts his eyes. The pistols were hot in his hands from the discharge, and now his hold on them has gone clammy. He sets one beside him on the seat and brings a fistful of his neckband to his face. It's the smear of dinner grease and gunpowder from Alan's hand that he fixes his mind on scrubbing at, but even the breadth of that paw hadn't raxed so high as his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> The embrace in this piece is modeled on the scene in the 1995 film adaptation.


End file.
